From Bad to Worse
by ChoCedric
Summary: It's only been a week since Cho's life was changed forever, and it's now time to go home and face her parents. How will she react when they clearly don't believe Voldemort's return? And how is she supposed to watch Cedric's burial?


Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Author's Note: So this is Cho's point of view of her return home and Cedric's funeral. I know I've written Cedric's funeral from Cho's point of view before, but I decided to post this. The reason why is because in the other times I wrote it, I never explained the relationship between Cho and her parents. This goes into, in depth, Mr. and Mrs. Chang's views on Voldemort's return, and their views on Cho dating. As you'll be able to see, her father was NOT okay with it.

Please, please review, I'm desperate for feedback!

From Bad to Worse

By: ChoCedric

The day Cho was to return home from Hogwarts after her fifth year dawned bright and sunny. Cho wondered fleetingly how the sun could shine after the devastating week she had had. How could the world keep ticking as normal? It was unreal to her.

True to a decision she had made last night, she sat on the train with Luna. Marietta opted to join them, but Cho could see that it was hard for her friend not to make a snide comment about Luna. Cho was grateful that at least she made the effort not to. The ride was spent talking quietly, reading, and remembering.

She remembered how she and Cedric had sat together at the beginning of the year. They'd only been friends at that time, but it was as though they'd been magnets glued together. He had been such an easy person to talk to, and their conversations came naturally. They had so much in common, especially Quidditch. They teasingly argued over which professional team would win the World Cup in four more years. Those memories overwhelmed her during the ride back to King's Cross station.

As soon as they arrived, Cho said a grateful thank you and goodbye to her two friends. "I'll write to you this summer," Marietta promised.

"You'll receive an owl from me too," piped up Luna. "Take care of yourself."

"I'll try," said Cho as she saw them hurrying to meet whoever had come to pick them up. In Marietta's case, it was both her parents, and in Luna's, it was her father.

Cho spotted her own parents waiting for her, and she dragged her trunk over to where they stood. "Hello," she said, wondering how her father would greet her. He had not been at all happy that his little girl had had a boyfriend.

"Hi, sweetheart," her mother said, wrapping her up in a warm hug. "How are you?" She examined Cho with a mother's air. "You look like you haven't been sleeping well."

Of course I haven't, Cho thought. Who would think I would, after what I'd seen a week ago?

"Hello, Cho," said Jack stiffly. Cho couldn't believe how different he was acting. It seemed like only saying the word "boyfriend" had set him off, and now, he was a completely changed person around her.

"Hello, Dad," Cho answered with stiffness of her own. Slowly, the three crossed the barrier and then proceeded to walk out of the station.

Cho's parents owned a car, because her father was a Muggle. It was true that Muggles couldn't come to Hogwarts, but at least they could get through the barrier of Platform Nine and Three-Quarters if a magical person held their arm, like in side-along apparition. They got in the car and started heading home.

Cho and her family lived a few hours south of London, in the town of Winchester. Cho had lived there all her life, and she loved it. They lived on a street called Teg Down Meads, and their comfy little house suited her fancy just fine.

Nothing was said on the ride back, and it was very uncomfortable. Meg continued to scrutinize her daughter, noting her heartbroken expression and her red, puffy eyes from crying so much. She's really taking this hard, she thought to herself. She must have really loved that Cedric fellow.

When they got home, Meg and Jack helped Cho take her trunk to her room. Then, Jack demanded for her to come in the living room because they needed to talk.

Meg gave him a warning look as they made their way to the couch in their comfortable-looking living room. Once they were seated, Jack began.

"I know," he said, "that this past year has been hard on you, Cho. But I hope that this taught you a lesson about not getting too attached to people."

Cho had just known that something like this was going to happen. She looked stonily at her father and said nothing.

"You will answer me when I talk to you," said Jack sternly. "Never before did I dream that you'd be so emotional and set your heart on a boy so young."

"Jack, please don't be too hard on her, she's heartbroken," Meg tried.

"Stay out of this, Meg," said Jack crossly. "I'm trying to have a discussion." Meg snapped her mouth shut, and Cho wondered why her mother had to be so submissive.

"Now," Jack continued, "I am sorry that he is dead. Never would I wish that on anybody. But you've got to realize, Cho, that it was not love you had with him. I know teenagers all too well; they simply suffer from that dreaded infatuation."

Cho's demeanor grew angry. "Dad, please," she said, trying to keep the fury out of her voice. "I know my own heart. I loved him."

"You're only fifteen years old, Cho," said Jack, not budging. "You don't even know what love is."

"That's nonsense and you know it, Jack," argued Meg.

"I TOLD you to stay out of this!" Jack yelled.

"Dad, please don't talk to Mum like that!" Cho cried, her bottom lip trembling.

"Now, listen to me, Cho Mae Chang," said Jack. "What happens between your mother and me is none of your concern. I know that what happened was a horrific tragedy, but this can't destroy you, it just can't. The sooner you realize you didn't really love him, the better."

Cho got up from the couch and faced her father fully. "Dad, I loved him very much," she said, accentuating each word. "And he loved me too."

Jack snorted. "Teenage boys are only interested in one thing, my girl," he said.

"Cedric respected me!" Cho couldn't help but shout. "He never pressured me into anything like that! Yes, he was older, but he said he'd always wait for me and he'd understand if I didn't want to get into a sexual relationship with him!"

"And I hope you didn't, young lady," Jack growled. "You're much too young for that. I do not want a grandchild anytime soon."

"No, nothing happened!" shrilled Cho. "But why are you giving me such a hard time? He's DEAD! You-Know-Who killed him!"

"Rubbish," Jack said. "Someone else killed him. It was an isolated incident. This You-Know-Who nonsense has got to stop."

"But Harry Potter and Dumbledore said that ..." started Cho.

"Meg has told me about this Dumbledore fellow," said Jack. "I may be a Muggle, but I know plenty about the magical world now. It sounds like this Albus Dumbledore's getting senile in his old age."

"That's not true!" Cho cried, shocked. "How could you say something like that? And Mum, how can you just sit there and agree with him?"

"Sweetheart, he's a hundred and fifty-four years old," Meg tried to get a hold on the rapidly deteriorating situation. "You-Know-Who's been dead for thirteen years. And Harry Potter ... he's a strange boy. I always knew trouble would follow him when he started at Hogwarts. The fame must have gotten to him."

"Have you even given any thought that it might be him who hurt Cedric?" Jack asked, bludgeoning Cho with his words. Her father had hit her where it hurt the most.

"I have," she replied angrily. "And the look on his face ... you should have seen it." She partly still blamed Harry for Cedric's death, but the logical, Ravenclaw part of her mind told her it was wrong to do so. How could she blame someone for surviving?

"Looks can be deceiving," said Jack, glaring at his daughter. "Now, listen to me. I will come to the funeral tomorrow with your mother and you, but after that, I want you to put Cedric out of your mind. He was one of many teenage boys today that view girls as objects."

"HE LOVED ME!" Cho screamed at the top of her lungs, her temper snapping. "DON'T YOU DARE TELL ME HE DIDN'T LOVE ME!" Bursting into tears, she sped from the room and threw herself on her bed in her own room. How dare her father say such things! Cedric had loved her, and she had loved him. They'd respected each other, and Cedric had never pressured her into anything sexual. The fact that he was the most popular boy in the school hadn't gotten to his head, and he'd remained sweet and good-natured to the end.

As she lay there sobbing, immersed in her thoughts, she heard the sounds of yelling coming from the living room; it was her parents, they were screaming at each other. Cho knew they were fighting about her, and she wished they'd stop. Couldn't they understand that they were only making the entire situation worse?

After a few minutes, the shouting finally stopped, and Cho heard her door open. Meg came in and sat down on the bed beside Cho, taking her in her arms. She rocked her and soothed her as the sobs continued.

"Wh-why doesn't Dad u-understand?" Cho choked out as tears swarmed rapidly down her face.

"I don't know, darling," Meg said quietly. "You have to cut him some slack, though. He's just been extremely worried about you this year."

"Doesn't he know I knew what I was doing, though?" Cho hiccuped. "I wasn't going to get myself pregnant, for Merlin's sake! Doesn't he know I'm more responsible than that?"

"Just give him time, darling," Meg consoled, rubbing Cho's back. "After tomorrow, you can try to put this behind you."

"You don't understand either," muttered Cho as her body shuddered. "I can't just forget Cedric!"

"I'm not telling you to, sweetie, but he'd want you to move on," Meg told her gently.

xxx

Cho spent the rest of the day in her room. She refused to leave even for dinner, so her mother brought a tray in with the food on it. But Cho only picked at it, unable to forget the fierce, ferocious look on her father's face as he'd told Cho that she was too young to know what falling in love felt like. Cho adamantly stuck to the thought that her father was wrong, that what her and Cedric had was real love, a real relationship.

The next morning, Cho woke up with dread filling her stomach. Today was the funeral, the day where the finality of Cedric's death would be confirmed. Today was the day that his lifeless body would be lowered into the ground. She couldn't bear the thought.

As Cho and her parents joined the line of people that somberly walked into St. Matthew's Church, she saw many people from Hogwarts. There were loads of Cedric's Hufflepuff friends, some of his professors, and plenty of his relatives. There would be a viewing before the funeral, so that people could say goodbye to him for the last time. It would be an open-casket service. Cho almost wished it was a closed-casket one; looking at the body which should be so alive right now was an agonizing thought.

They walked in, and got to the place where Cedric's body lay. The expression upon his face was still the same, one of total shock and fear, but at least his eyes were now closed. Cho couldn't help but start to cry again. It seemed like her tear ducts carried an endless supply of tears. She said, "I love you," quietly as she put a picture of the two of them in his limp hand. The picture had been taken at the prom, only 24 hours before he died. In it, his eyes sparkled with laughter and love as he held her close to him.

Jack looked at his daughter with a scowl on his face, but Meg was looking at her with compassion. "He was a very good-looking boy," she said softly as she wrapped an arm around Cho.

"I just wish he were still here," Cho said sadly as she gave her love's hand one last squeeze. She and her parents then went to sit down at one of the pews.

The service was heartbreaking. Cho didn't feel strong enough to speak herself, but she saw that many people did, even Mrs. Diggory. Mr. Diggory, like Cho, was too much of an emotional wreck to say anything. Mrs. Diggory spoke of many moments in her son's life, and she showed warmth and affection to him as she talked. "Amos and I were so blessed to get the time with him that we did," she said softly, looking right at the beautiful, mahogany coffin as she spoke. The coffin also had flowers on it, more flowers than you could even imagine. "He was our son, he had a heart of gold, and he will always be remembered."

Many hymns were sung, including Morning Has Broken, which Mrs. Diggory said had been playing in the delivery room during Cedric's birth. Cho tried to join in the singing, but her voice shook. Oh, Cedric would be so disappointed in her! He'd always said she had a beautiful, soprano singing voice, but it was so hard for her to muster up the strength and energy to sing now. She'd never imagined, in all her time with Cedric, that she'd ever have to go to his funeral this soon. It just wasn't fair. He'd had his entire life ahead of him, and he was so dearly loved. The seventeen-year-old had truly been adored by everyone. Cho had never seen a church so packed in all her life, and she'd gone to services on Sundays for years. She was amazed at how many relatives Cedric had as well.

More and more tributes to Cedric were shared. Some of his Hufflepuff friends shared stories of him, and Professor Sprout spoke fondly of how he had been the mentor of so many younger students in her house. The whole time, Cho cried on her mother's shoulder, while her father looked on with a stiff face.

After the service was over, they went outside, where a cemetery was. Cho watched, her heart in agony as Mr. Diggory and some of Cedric's more muscular friends carried the now closed casket to the hole that the gravediggers were digging. With flicks of their wands, the hole was deepening, and then it was finally deep enough for Cedric's body to be lowered into.

Complete hysteria shook Cho's body as Mrs. Diggory blew her son one last kiss. Mr. Diggory was doing everything he could to hold his distraught wife up, while Cedric's friends and professors were looking at the casket with pain and sorrow. Even Dumbledore was there, and Cho, through her haze, saw Jack give him a glare. Can't he just leave the man alone? Cho wanted to shriek out.

As the casket was lowered into the ground and people started throwing dirt on top of it, a heartwrenching "NOOOOOOOOO!" erupted from Cho, and she ran away from the scene, faster than she ever had in her life. She heard her father screaming, "Get a hold of yourself, young lady! You're causing a scene!" but she didn't care. The love of her life was now six feet underground, and he was never coming back. It was done. It was over. He was gone.

Cho collapsed on top of another grave, putting her head in her hands. She knew that her parents were trying to find her, and she didn't want to be found. The only place she wanted to be was under the ground with Cedric. God, he was only seventeen! He didn't deserve this!

"Cho?" a gentle voice said, pulling her out of her thoughts. Cho looked up and saw her mother crouching beside her. "Cho, darling, it's all right. It's over now."

"If Dad makes one more snide comment about how I didn't love him ..." Cho began.

"Honey, it's plain to see that you did love him," Meg said softly. "Your father's just having a really hard time with the fact that you're growing up."

"Can't he give me a break? I'm at my BOYFRIEND'S FUNERAL, dammit!" Cho screamed.

Usually, Meg would have told her daughter to watch her language, but under the circumstances, she was willing to let it slide. "Mrs. Diggory has invited us to the reception at her house," she said, trying to change the subject and get it off of Jack. "She says it's okay if you don't want to go, for she can see how upset you are. But the invitation's open."

"I can't," Cho said brokenly. "I can't go to his house and hear everyone tell old stories of him. It's just ... it's just too much."

"I understand, honey," said Meg. "We'll go home now, then."

Cho walked with her mother to Cedric's grave, which had been properly filled now. Jack was standing there, looking disparagingly at the two of them. Meg conjured a bunch of flowers and handed them to Cho. Cho put them gently on the grave, then bent down to read the headstone.

Cedric Amos Diggory

Born September 21, 1977

Died June 24, 1995

Loving son, loyal friend

Do not stand at my grave and cry,

For I am not there. I did not die.

As Cho read over the words again, she noticed that the person who'd written the inscription had forgotten one thing. He had forgotten to say that Cedric was a loving boyfriend, as well as a loving son and loyal friend. But Cho would always add that to the list of things that were written there. "I'll never forget you, love," she whispered, ignoring her father's look as they apparated away from the graveyard. "I love you."


End file.
